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NASA Exercise: Survival on the Moon
This is a fun scenario and exercise as well as a great story starter Scenario: You are a member of a space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon . However, due to mechanical difficulties, your ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles from the rendezvous point. During reentry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile trip. Below are listed the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Your task is to rank order them in terms of their importance for your crew in allowing them to reach the rendezvous point. Place the number 1 '''by the most important item, the number '''2 '''by the second most important, and so on through number '''15 '''for the least important. '''Your Ranking NASA Ranking _______ Box of matches _______ _______ Food concentrate _______ _______ 50 feet of nylon rope _______ _______ Parachute silk _______ _______ Portable heating unit _______ _______ Two .45 caliber pistols _______ _______ One case of dehydrated milk _______ _______ Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen _______ _______ Stellar map _______ _______ Self-inflating life raft _______ _______ Magnetic compass _______ _______ 20 liters of water _______ _______ Signal flares _______ _______ First aid kit, including injection needle _______ _______ Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter _______ Answers Item Ranking NASA's Reasoning Box of matches 15 '''Virtually worthless -- there's no oxygen on the moon to sustain combustion Food concentrate '''4 '''Efficient means of supplying energy requirements 50 feet of nylon rope '''6 '''Useful in scaling cliffs and tying injured together Parachute silk '''8 '''Protection from the sun's rays Portable heating unit '''13 '''Not needed unless on the dark side Two .45 calibre pistols '''11 '''Possible means of self-propulsion One case of dehydrated milk '''12 '''Bulkier duplication of food concentrate Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen '''1 '''Most pressing survival need (weight is not a factor since gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's -- each tank would weigh only about 17 lbs. on the moon) Stellar map '''3 '''Primary means of navigation - star patterns appear essentially identical on the moon as on Earth Self-inflating life raft '''9 '''CO2 bottle in military raft may be used for propulsion Magnetic compass '''14 '''The magnetic field on the moon is not polarized, so it's worthless for navigation 20 litres of water '''2 '''Needed for replacement of tremendous liquid loss on the light side Signal flares '''10 '''Use as distress signal when the mother ship is sighted First aid kit, including injection needle '''7 '''Needles connected to vials of vitamins, medicines, etc. will fit special aperture in NASA space suit Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter '''5 '''For communication with mother ship (but FM requires line-of-sight transmission and can only be used over short ranges) '''Scoring: For each item, mark the number of points that your score differs from the NASA ranking, then add up all the points. Disregard plus or minus differences. The lower the total, the better your score. 0 - 25 excellent 26 - 32 good 33 - 45 average 46 - 55 fair 56 - 70 poor -- suggests use of Earth-bound logic 71 - 112 very poor – you’re one of the casualties of the space program! Category:GC Writers Resources Category:Notes